London Art News previews art exhibitions in London and reports on anything of special interest in the visual arts worldwide, from ice sculpture to body painting.

Wednesday, 22 January 2014

Guardi for Oxford

This apparently pristine oil painting by Francesco Guardi, Venice: the Fondamenta Nuove with the Lagoon and the Island of San Michele (c. 1758), previously unpublished, has been acquired by the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford (CLICK). It was painted for a British Grand Tourist and kept in the family. The acquisition was made possible by Arts Council England under the Acceptance in Lieu of Inheritance scheme plus a generous grant from the Art Fund and from other donors. I'm puzzled by the donations, because I thought the whole idea of the Acceptance in Lieu scheme was to take artworks instead of inheritance tax, not to pay for them. Still, who am I to quibble? CLICK for a larger image of this beautiful painting.